What a leisurely start to the day but with only 25km between us and Busselton we did not need to hurry. The weather was great with blue skies, no wind and about 20 degrees although the camp area in the pines was still shady when we left due to the size and number of trees in the area. All good just the same, and an excellent place to stop. When we got into Busselton we did the usual and tracked down the information centre and from there navigated our way to the esplanade. One of the unique attractions in the town is the 1.8km long jetty which unfortunately was closed due to renovations but it was impressive just the same. An excellent waterfront area although it appears coastal erosion is an issue with man made barriers in place in some areas where the beach itself has gone with the tide now lapping against the boulders. An excellent resort town though with a casual no hurry feel about it – not sure where the artistic cows that are around the place fit into things though (excuse farmer Ross - der)…
After lunch and checking out some of the town we headed a little bit further down the road to Dunsborough. This is where Jenni (one of Glenys daughters) and family lives and they had offered for us to camp in their driveway which was excellent. As we were a little early however we checked out the town but made the mistake of going into the car park by the beach. Mistake in that it did not have a turn around area for big things like us and only one road in. No worries, we just had a coffee and enjoyed the lovely day and scenery while waiting for the owners of a couple of vehicles to leave which then gave us room to turn around. Carol also managed to call her mum and dad amidst the pleasant lapping of the Indian Ocean by her feet. As the coastline actually faces north the water here is very calm most of the time.
Dunsborough also has a lovely north facing waterfront and is consistent with all the towns we have seen since leaving Perth and talking with locals has developed significantly over the last ten years. Towards the end of the day we headed to Jenni’s place for the night. Once again we were made to feel so welcome and after setting up got to know Jenni, Chris and Riley and of course their dog Marley. It was an excellent evening and we were so grateful to them for being able to camp in the driveway and use their facilities. We were also very interested to learn about the “Paws for diabetes” which are dogs trained to recognize when the blood sugar levels of the owner are about to drop and in turn warn them of the situation.
On Wednesday we did a few jobs such as tackling the caravan leak and washing and the like and then took ourselves off on a tour out to Cape Naturaliste stopping at some of the northern facing beaches on the way. Meelup was especially beautiful with clear water, colourful rocks and the forest behind. Once reaching the cape however things changed dramatically as the west facing coastline is rugged and pounded by huge swells rolling in.
Our walk took us around the lighthouse from the western to the northern side of the cape where we saw a large seal colony and a small snake sunning itself alongside the track as well as a few rugged up Skippys. All in all we had an excellent day with brilliant sunshine and it was warm enough for shorts and tee-shirt again.
